Hero
by Birdyyy
Summary: She'd always wanted to be a hero. Ever since she came to camp. One-shot for Clarisse because I believe that she isn't featured enough.


**Author's Notes:**  
**Here's a nice 800 word one-shot about Clarisse. And posted about 20 minutes before 2011 (in China, at least)!**  
**I'm sorry about the long period of time which I didn't post anything. I would've written another chapter of Appreciation and posted it earlier this month, but my laptop broke.**  
**REVIEW!**  
**-Birdyy**

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Hero

She's always wanted to be a hero. Ever since she first came to camp.

But it's freaking hard, especially when your cabin isn't known for being the brightest dudes around, and neither is it when they aren't the calmest, either, unlike that kid from the Hypnos cabin who would fall asleep every single time one of the siblings threatened him.

It's even harder when everyone thinks that you're all a bunch of jerks with a bad rep in camp, even though it's true.

So that's when she decides that she wants to be different. That's when she decides to stand out from the rest of her so called "idiot siblings."

She knows, that just because they aren't the best in the views of the other cabins doesn't mean that they aren't proud to be known as Ares. It doesn't mean that they don't have spirit.

Just because they like to settle things with a fight doesn't mean that they believe in only brawn.

In fact, some of her siblings are actually pretty smart. They aren't all idiots.

She caught one reading Lord of the Rings just last week. AND that was the sibling who picked a fight with Percy on the same day.

She doesn't get why the rest of the Camp thinks that they can insult her cabin anytime they want and think that they won't retaliate.

But all the stereotyping from the rest of the camp is exactly why she wants to be a hero.

That's why when she gets that quest, she's so eager to jump ahead and leave everyone behind, even her own half-siblings.

She doesn't want to share the glory with any other cabin, and she after all, she wants to stand out from her own cabin, doesn't she? So she doesn't bring her brothers and sisters along on the boat.

But when she gets back, she realizes that she'd much rather see her entire cabin celebrated than her.

When she meets Chris, it's like she's finally found someone who understands her, besides Annabeth, of course.

When she becomes friends with Silena, she hopes that she's not being a jerk like the rest of her cabin.

When Apollo and Ares have that argument about that chariot, her temper just flares and makes the second biggest mistake that she could make.

Her damn pride had let the cabin to look like idiots.

And she realizes that she's becoming like her cabin again.

That's when she decides that she needs to take a break, a long break from trying to build herself a new reputation, and get some respect, so she withdraws from the war.

In the end, she feels so freaking thankful to Silena for pulling her cabin out of her funk, yet she feels so angry at her for getting herself killed. Then the reality just hits her and she's completely devastated, so she decides to avenge her the best way she knows how.

Killing the damn drakon.

Charging it with no armor may have been downright stupid, but it was an action that no one would ever forget.

She's never felt more powerful, more awesome, more invincible than she ever had. And that was before her father gave her his blessing.

And while she's fighting, she's just dimly aware that she's finally, _finally, **finally**_, a real hero.

Afterwards, she finds it a little ironic that she's finally achieved her goal, but it was only because her friend, one of the best friends that she's ever had, betrayed them and then just _changed her mind_ and sacrificed herself for them all.

She still gets a little overwhelmed when she thinks about all this.

She's finallly a hero now, but sometimes, it saddens her, a tough kid of Ares who are supposed to love war, to see all that had to be lost just to become one.

Hero.

She could finally call herself that now.


End file.
